In April 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency published a proposed rule defining the “waters of the United States,” meaning the waters regulated by the government through the Clean Water Act (CWA). As has been widely reported in the farm media, many people have serious concerns...

Employers in sectors such as manufacturing, energy and agriculture faced with significant shortages of skilled labor, received a major boost from Congress last week. The long-awaited job training program reform bill “Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act” received bipartisan...

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will invest more than $250 million in loan proceeds to help improve the reliability of electric systems in rural areas in eight states. A portion of the funds will be used to modernize the systems with smart grid improvements.

As part of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) passed in March of 2011, the FDA was given a mandate to update its regulations to create a new set of regulations/rules that enables it to prevent the introduction of adulterated food into the human and animal food supply in the U.S., as opposed...

In Venancio Aguasanta Arias v. Dyncorp, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed all but one of the prior judgments rendered by the District Court. Appellants consist of a group of Ecuadorian provinces and individual farmers who alleged personal injury and...

In a closely watched case involving allegations of false advertising by competitors, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to POM Wonderful by accepting that company’s argument that mere compliance with governmental regulations does not preclude or preempt false advertising claims under the...

The Canadian Government recently introduced Bill C-31, the Economic Action Plan Act 2014, No.1. This omnibus bill includes changes to a wide variety of laws in Canada. The potential amendments to Canada’s Trade-marks Act will have a significant impact on brand owners, as well as intellectual...

We regularly counsel our clients on their desires to keep the farm in the family. Farms tend to embody a lot of family history and hard work that their owners want to pass on to their kids and grandchildren. Although there are numerous ways to pass it on, one of the ways often contemplated is by a...